Finished: Jalie Cora Running Tights for Spoonflower British Blog Hop

I took up running last year and am pleased that I have continued to enjoy it. From the start, I was interested in sewing something to wear when running, and I finally decided on running tights (leggings) as a useful place to start and not too intimidating in terms of sewing with activewear fabrics.

 

Pattern
I considered a few pattern options - Big 4, indies (Sewaholic and Fehr Trade), before choosing the Jalie Cora leggings. The pattern also has an option to make shorts too.

I liked the lines of the pattern and the fact it comes with aaaaalllll the size options from child to adult. Also, the design with no seam around the crotch makes it good for cycling - which is something I'd like to do more. The design has great potential for colour blocking, although I obviously didn't do that here so you get to experience the full effect of this fab fabric. Speaking of which....

Fabric
My plan to sew these leggings was timed perfectly with an offer from Spoonflower of some fabric from their site as part of the Spoonflower British Blog Hop. The blog hop is to mark a year and a half since they opened their Berlin factory, meaning that orders to the UK can be shipped from Europe instead of the US, making them quicker to receive and without the dread of US customs fees (been there with orders from the US! Ugh). I am the final stop on the blog hop, and you can see what everyone else has made here:

Blog Tour Schedule

Saturday, May 27 | Kate | The Fold Line

Monday, May 29 | Sarah | A Million Dresses 

Tuesday, May 30 | Manu | Sew Manju

 Wednesday, May 31 | Amy | Almond Rock

  Thursday, June 1 | Rachel | House of Pinheiro

Friday, June 2 | Marie | A Stitching Odyssey

Saturday, June 3 | Katie | What Katie Sews

  Monday, June 5 | Zoe | Sozoblog 

I have used Spoonflower's services before (to make this dress using a Van Gogh painting). Although I was tempted to design my own fabric, I was helped a lot by my graphic designer colleague last time plus as Spoonflower already have thousands of great prints, I decided to use one of their existing designs so I chose this:

Mexican Sugar Skulls by Lusy Koror

I chose to have it printed on the sport lycra base, which is designed for activewear and swimsuits. There was no colour loss in the initial wash and it is appropriately stretchy but not so much that it loses design integrity or shows too much white when it stretches. Although stretchy it still quite 'firm' - more so than something like supplex. You can get samples of the Spoonflower fabrics, which I would advise you to do if unsure what would work best for your project.

Pattern alterations or any design changes
I added some length (because, tall) but otherwise I cut a straight size W. I made a muslin of the shorts using size V and this was WAY too small to be comfortable. The W is still very close fitting however I'm pretty sure that running tights are supposed to fit this way. My current pair of leggings are from Lidl and are basic 'keep fit leggings', which are served me well but are more roomy so I always end up having to pull them up during a run which is really annoying. I'm still getting used to how close fitting these are on me but there's definitely no slippage.


How was it to sew?

The leggings are pretty high waisted, and  come up to just below my belly button. Again, this helps them to be a nice snug fit but this may not be to everyone's tastes. I also liked the big back pocket which would be large enough for a large-ish smartphone.

The Jalie instructions are....brief, and I'm a big fan of instructions. However there is a great video on their Youtube channel that takes you through sewing the leggings. This was invaluable. It's brief but really clear. Actually, I really liked how 'to the point' it was, and being just under 16 minutes long, it makes the leggings seem a really achievable sew. When cutting out the fabric, you really have to ensure you cut all the notches and cut them 'sticking out' of the fabric. This did slow down cutting the fabric as you can't just whizz up and down with a rotary cutter. I usually just make a small snip into the seam allowance to mark notches, but as these leggings have a small seam allowance and also matching the notches is really key to good construction, it's worth cutting out the notches properly.

The pattern would be great to show off patterned fabric in combination with plain but I just did the whole thing in the patterned fabric. Although this hides the lines of the pattern it looks ace. I obviously didn't attempt to pattern match. 

Cost
Pattern:  £11.99 for the paper pattern (or you can get the pdf from Jalie's site)
Fabric:   Free from Spoonflower
Elastic:  In stash

Total:     £11.99

Conclusion
I'd like to make more of these in both leggings and shorts version and I was happy with how well the fabric washed, sewed up and is wearing. I have some left over and would love to try it out for swimwear too. I would order from Spoonflower again but if ordering for these leggings I would probably take advantage of the colour blocking potential of the pattern and only order 1 yard instead of 2 and combine a print with a plain fabric.

Thanks for inviting me to be part of the blog hop, Spoonflower!

Disclaimer: I was sent my choice of fabric for free, opinions are my own.